Indiegogo to accept Canadian dollars, offer French crowdfunding platform

The crowdfunding site, which works by taking a percentage of the funds raised by campaigns on the platform, has been a popular way to launch artistic projects and raise money for charitable causes.

But cash-strapped entrepreneurs in this country’s tech and gaming community have also been increasingly turning to Indiegogo to get projects off the ground and that number could grow as the company said Wednesday it will offer transactions in Canadian dollars.

Two current Canadian tech campaigns include Toronto’s Interaxon, which has raised more than US$235,000 to bring its brain-sensing headband dubbed “Muse” to market, and Vancouver-based Moj.io, which is looking for US$100,000 for its device that lets apps connect with your car.

Canada is Indiegogo’s second biggest market outside the U.S. and on top of accepting Canadian money, the company said Wednesday the platform will be available in French later this month.

“Canada was one of first countries to embrace us that wasn’t the U.S. We’ve had Canadian campaigns on Indiegogo since pretty much the beginning,” co-founder Danae Ringelmann said in an interview.

Seventy per cent of Indiegogo’s business comes from U.S. campaigns and Canada makes up a “strong percentage” of the international business, she said.

Until now, the site has only collected and disbursed funds in U.S. dollars (those who start campaigns must have a U.S. bank account).

“While most campaigns raise money from more than one country, still a large amount of funding comes from the country of origin, where the campaign is,” she said. “So we want to be able to provide a familiar funding experience.”

“There was a little bit of friction given the fact that we were only available in U.S. dollars so we wanted to completely remove that,” she added.

Indiegogo is also adding the euro and British pound sterling as available currencies, and will expand to offer the platform in German later this month. Next year, it will offer localized versions of its homepage to highlight popular campaigns in Canada, Britain, France and Germany.

Ms. Ringelmann was at the LeWeb tech conference in Paris, France Wednesday morning to announce the changes.

Like other crowdfunding Web platforms, Indiegogo makes money by taking a cut of the funds raised.

The San Francisco-based company, which was founded in 2008 and is backed by US$16.5-million in venture funding, takes 4% of the funds raised if a campaign reaches its funding goal.

For campaigns with a fixed goal, if the project does not meet the goal, it gets none of the funds pledged and Indiegogo charges no fee.

For flexible campaigns, the fundraisers get whatever was pledged even if it did not meet the goal, but the site takes a 9% fee.

The money supporters pledge to campaigns on sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter does not entitle them to an ownership stake in the companies they back.

Other notable tech-related Canadian Indiegogo campaigns include Montreal’s startup/tech hub Notman House, which raised US$120,000 to help purchase and renovate the building, and Pure Pwnage, which attracted US$211,000 in backing to make a movie on gamer and Internet culture (an extension of the concept in earlier web and TV productions).

On the other hand, the filmmakers behind Day Job, a documentary charting the lives of entrepreneurs at Toronto startup accelerator Extreme Startups, struggled to meet their funding goal on the platform. The campaign raised about US$3,000 toward its goal of US$25,000 by the deadline of Nov. 25.